[Fic] "Cold and Sweet" -- Angel Sanctuary
Oct. 19th, 2009 02:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI have said before and will doubtless say again that of all fantasy tropes, the one I hate most is prophecy. I hate it on moral grounds; prophecy denies free will. I hate it on scientific grounds; prophecy denies chaos and chance. (Look, we cannot predict the weather a week in advance. Don't ask me to believe you can predict human society even six months into the future.) And I hate it on literary grounds; prophecy steals agency and makes characters into helpless, boring puppets -- why should I care about them when all their thoughts and actions are pre-programmed, with no chance for learning, growth, or serendipity?
I also dislike astrology, though I dislike that mostly because people act as if it's true, valid, and scientific, and it is really, really not, but mostly I hate it because all fortune-telling is either fraud or prophecy, and either way it's icky. (I realize that sounds funny coming from someone who occasionally reads Tarot cards and plays clock solitaire as a fortune-telling method, but I do those because the stories I shape out of random patterns illuminate my subconscious mind, not because I think they actually say anything useful about the future.)
Anyway. Have an Angel Sanctuary double drabble about Lucifer and predestination. It's pretty didactic, but I am unreasonable on this subject and do not have the patience to hide my axe-grinding tonight.
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Cold and Sweet
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God knows everything. God plans the universe down to the last, least detail. God sees the shadows in your heart and the ghosts of your thoughts before they form. Rebellion is futile. Resistance is already accounted for, already woven into the pattern.
That is the party line. That is heaven's catechism.
Lucifer denies it. He looks at the chaos of the universe, the dance of quantum particles and the emergent properties of thought and emotion, and denies predestination. The dance can be guided, but never controlled... and even if control were possible, no one worthy of such power would inflict such cruelty on his children.
God wants Lucifer to play the villain, and so he will, but on his own terms. He has a promise to keep, and he refuses to believe God has already planned for that. God thinks him heartless, incapable of love. Lucifer refuses to accept that either.
Eons later, tempered by countless defeats and humiliations, he curls his fingers into the belly of God's infernal machine as Setsuna brings down the killing stroke. The shock on God's false face is like air to a drowning man.
Lucifer picks up his opponent's severed head and smiles. "Surprise."
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Inspired by the 10/19/09![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
15_minute_fic word #124: forecast
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In random real life news, the street in front of the smoke shop has reopened (well, 3/4 opened) after months of construction. Hi there, sudden business rebound! Our deposits have just jumped back to pre-June levels, and I am out of practice dealing with this kind of customer flow. I feel as though I am always running about two steps behind myself.
...On the bright side, people have stopped asking if the construction has hurt/slowed our business. (Which, okay, after the first week I wanted to scream every time I heard that. Have the noise and dust and lack of easy access hurt us? Of course they have! *sigh* I know people said it mostly to make small talk, but seriously, I wish people would take a second and think before they make blatantly obvious comments, because we have heard them all before, and we are sick to death of the subject. This also holds for stupid lottery jokes, btw.)
I also dislike astrology, though I dislike that mostly because people act as if it's true, valid, and scientific, and it is really, really not, but mostly I hate it because all fortune-telling is either fraud or prophecy, and either way it's icky. (I realize that sounds funny coming from someone who occasionally reads Tarot cards and plays clock solitaire as a fortune-telling method, but I do those because the stories I shape out of random patterns illuminate my subconscious mind, not because I think they actually say anything useful about the future.)
Anyway. Have an Angel Sanctuary double drabble about Lucifer and predestination. It's pretty didactic, but I am unreasonable on this subject and do not have the patience to hide my axe-grinding tonight.
---------------------------------------------
Cold and Sweet
---------------------------------------------
God knows everything. God plans the universe down to the last, least detail. God sees the shadows in your heart and the ghosts of your thoughts before they form. Rebellion is futile. Resistance is already accounted for, already woven into the pattern.
That is the party line. That is heaven's catechism.
Lucifer denies it. He looks at the chaos of the universe, the dance of quantum particles and the emergent properties of thought and emotion, and denies predestination. The dance can be guided, but never controlled... and even if control were possible, no one worthy of such power would inflict such cruelty on his children.
God wants Lucifer to play the villain, and so he will, but on his own terms. He has a promise to keep, and he refuses to believe God has already planned for that. God thinks him heartless, incapable of love. Lucifer refuses to accept that either.
Eons later, tempered by countless defeats and humiliations, he curls his fingers into the belly of God's infernal machine as Setsuna brings down the killing stroke. The shock on God's false face is like air to a drowning man.
Lucifer picks up his opponent's severed head and smiles. "Surprise."
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 10/19/09
15_minute_fic word #124: forecast---------------------------------------------
In random real life news, the street in front of the smoke shop has reopened (well, 3/4 opened) after months of construction. Hi there, sudden business rebound! Our deposits have just jumped back to pre-June levels, and I am out of practice dealing with this kind of customer flow. I feel as though I am always running about two steps behind myself.
...On the bright side, people have stopped asking if the construction has hurt/slowed our business. (Which, okay, after the first week I wanted to scream every time I heard that. Have the noise and dust and lack of easy access hurt us? Of course they have! *sigh* I know people said it mostly to make small talk, but seriously, I wish people would take a second and think before they make blatantly obvious comments, because we have heard them all before, and we are sick to death of the subject. This also holds for stupid lottery jokes, btw.)
